Living the "Christ Life" by the transformative grace of the Holy Spirit. The pilgrimage journal of a faithful struggler in Christ.

Monthly Archives: March 2010

Since I retired from parish ministry and began pursuing Upward Call as my fulltime ministry I have experienced an interesting change.

For 16 years I met with men and women almost exclusively at St. Columba Church and Retreat House. Nestled in the rural setting of West Marin, it provided a quiet environment into which I could invite people to explore deeper participation in the life of God and consider the participation of God in their life.

That all changed with my retirement. Now, I meet with people at Starbuck’s or Peet’s or at the Prayer Room I maintain in the building of one of the congregations in Novato.

Now, I invite men and women to explore the mutual indwelling of God and themselves in an environment in which there are the sounds of traffic, lawn mowers, high school kids on lunch break, etc.

I have been ruminating (wondering) about this transition and its possible meaning. It occurs to me that there are two wonderful models of monasticism exemplified in this transition.

One the one hand, St. Columba sort of represents the Benedictine, Cistercian model of intentional separation from the daily grind. We are issued an invitation/command:

“And he said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.” (Mark 6.31)

“Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves; and he was transfigured before them, and his garments became glistening, intensely white, as no fuller on earth could bleach them.” (Mark 2.2-3)

In both cases, the invitation was to realize, contemplate, and serve Him in the context of solitude.

One the other hand, my Prayer Room in the city represents the Franciscan, Sisters of Mercy model of intentional location in the midst of the daily grind. We are invited by Christ to realize, contemplate, and serve Him in environments of crowdedness and noise:

“For she said, ‘If I touch even his garments, I shall be made well.’ And immediately the hemorrhage ceased; and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone forth from him, immediately turned about in the crowd, and said, ‘Who touched my garments?’ And his disciples said to him, ‘You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, “Who touched me?”‘ And he looked around to see who had done it.” Mark 5.28-31

“And when he returned to Caper’na-um after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door; and he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and when they had made an opening, they let down the pallet on which the paralytic lay.” Mark 2.1-4

Christ apart and Christ in the midst. Not “either or” but rather “both and”.

Both valid.

Both essential.

Both humbling and encouraging.

Both are “sacred space” to address the disciple in a particular aspect of his or her journey of salvation.

Both bear fruit in the other environment. The “apart” produces fruit “in the midst” and “in the midst” bears fruit in the “apart”.

Both vital to growth / transformation of the disciple.

Not a balance – a tension, but rather, a vital and dynamic union – a marriage.

Is one more difficult than the other? I don’t think so. They are both difficult because they touch on aspects of our inner life that rebel against the sovereignty of Christ in that area. Both are, therefore, costly and cross-shaped.

So, I am being invited/commanded, in this transition, to live more completely into the complete Christ – Christ apart and Christ in the midst – with the promise that He can (and must) be found in both environments to be the complete Christ in our life and for us to be abundantly alive.

The Way Walk in It

“Thus says the LORD: ‘Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.’” Jeremiah 6.16

Christian Slippery Slope

“Our upbringing and the whole atmosphere of the world we live in make it certain that our main temptation will be that of yielding to winds of doctrine, not that of ignoring them. We are not at all likely to be hidebound; we are very likely to be the slaves of fashion. If one has to choose between reading the new books and reading the old, one must chose the old: not because they are necessarily better but because they contain precisely those truths of which our own age is neglectful. The standard of permanent Christianity must be kept clear in our minds and it is against that standard that we must test all contemporary thought. In fact, we must at all costs not move with the times. We serve One who said ‘Heaven and Earth shall move with the times, but my words shall not move with the times.’” "Christian Apologetics", 1945, C.S. Lewis

Called Upward

“The weight of our fragility makes us bend towards realities here below; the fire of your love, O Lord, raises us up and bears us towards realities above. We rise there by means of our heart's impetus, singing the songs of ascent. We burn with your fire, the fire of your goodness, for it is this that transports us. Where is it that you thus cause us to rise? To the peace of the heavenly Jerusalem. “I rejoiced when I heard them say: Let us go to the house of the Lord” (Ps 122[121].1). Nothing will bring us to it except the desire to remain there for ever. While we are in the body, we journey towards you. Here below we have no abiding city; we are constantly seeking our home in the city to come (Heb 13.14). May your grace guide me, O Lord, into the depths of my heart, there to sing of your love, my King and my God... And as I remember that heavenly Jerusalem my heart will rise up towards it: to Jerusalem my true homeland, Jerusalem my mother (Gal 4.26). You are its King, its light, its defender, its protector, its pastor; you are its unquenchable joy; your goodness is the source of all its inexpressible blessings... You, my God and my divine mercy.” St. Augustine

Chief Desire

"My chief desire in all my writings, is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ and make Him beautiful and glorious in the eyes of men; and to promote the increase of repentance, faith, and holiness upon earth." R.C. Ryle

Descend with the Mind in the Heart

“So long as the ascetic prays with the mind in the head, he will still be working solely with the resources of the human intellect, and on this level he will never attain to an immediate and personal encounter with God. By the use of the brain, he will at best know about God, but will not know God. For there can be no direct knowledge of God without and exceedingly great love, and such love must come, not from the brain alone, but from the whole man-that is, from the heart. It is necessary, then, for the ascetic to descend from the head into the heart. He is not required to abandon his intellectual powers-reason, too, is a gift of God- but is called to descend with the mind into his heart.” Kallistos Ware

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